Art for Ent's Sake

Shown here are, from left, Elena Clark, Rachel Davidson and Kori Pothour, the UCCS students who created the mural behind them for Ent FCU.

Three art students at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs have created a new mural for the $3.8 billion Ent Federal Credit Union to display at the 224,500-member credit union’s branch in the UCCS University Center. They were responding to a challenge from the credit union to the school’s Visual Arts Department when they came up with the design for the piece they called “Unity.”

According to the students, “the new mural is meant to illustrate the support and collaboration Ent provides for the UCCS students, staff and faculty as well as the Colorado Springs community. The use of bright colors, organic lines and shapes were meant to evoke the beautiful essence of Colorado Springs and the stunning Rocky Mountains. The glass tiles represent the diversity of people who join together to create a dynamic and economically vibrant community.”

It took the three students, led by Associate Professor Valerie Brodar, more than six months to produce the 10-foot tall mural, the third student-made mural Ent has displayed there since 2008. The final product was unveiled on April 22.

“We are very impressed with what the students created and are proud to display it in our service center here at UCCS. These students collaborated well and are very talented; their creativity and artistic ability definitely shows,” said Matt Gendron, Ent’s senior vice president of operations.